2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike
The 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike was a targeted drone strike carried out by the United States against an Iranian IRGC convoy carrying Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Popular Mobilization Forces deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The airstrike killed 10 Iranians and Iraqi Shia militiamen, rapidly escalating tensions between the USA and Iran and threatening to turn the Persian Gulf crisis into an open war. Background Following the US bombing of the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah paramilitary group in Iraq and Syria on 29 December 2019, the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and the leaders of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces retaliated by ordering an attack on the US embassy in the Green Zone of Baghdad. From 31 December 2019 to 1 January 2020, PMF militiamen and sympathetic protesters demonstrated outside of the embassy, setting fire to the reception area, ramming against windows and doors, planting anti-US propaganda on the embassy walls, and staging a sit-in until the PMF leadership ordered them to withdraw on 1 January, having sent a message to the US. While the attack was bloodless and was meant to coerce the US into withdrawing from Iraq, President Donald Trump was infuriated by Iran's brazen display of its hegemony over Iraq, and, advised that General Soleimani planned to carry out more terrorist attacks against the USA, Trump decided to target Soleimani for assassination. Without consulting the US intelligence community, the Gang of Eight, or the US Congress, he ordered the assassination of Soleimani from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on the night of 2-3 January 2019. Attack In the early morning hours of 3 January 2020, Soleimani's private plane arrived at the Baghdad International Airport from Syria, where he had been supervising the IRGC's support for Bashar al-Assad's Syrian Arab Army. He and his cohort of IRGC officers were met at the airport by several PMF leaders, including deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and his public relations chief Muhammed Reza al-Jaberi. The IRGC and PMF officials then entered two vehicles and drove down an airport access road, where, at 1:00 AM, an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired several missiles at the convoy, killing all 10 occupants of the two vehicles. Aftermath The attack was immediately followed by a surge in oil prices and arms company stocks, and the US embassy in Iraq urged all Americans in the country to leave immediately. Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei declared three days of mourning in Soleimani's honor, and his death was mourned across Iran, as he was a very popular general due to his role in the victory over ISIL in Iraq; however, his death was quietly celebrated by several Iranians who had suffered from his repression of the democratic protests in the country in late 2019. Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, and IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaee promised "harsh revenge" against the USA, and Iran raised a red flag of jihad above the Jamkaran Mosque on 4 January and, on 5 January, Iran withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. The reaction to the airstrike in the USA was polarizing, with both Republicans and Democrats agreeing that Soleimani was a villain who was deserving of his demise, but Democrats criticizing the President for bringing the nation to the brink of war without Congressional approval and Republicans defending the President's actions. Many opponents of the move called it an "act of war", and there were widespread fears that the airstrike could lead to a third world war against Iran and its allies (especially Russia and possibly China and North Korea). On 4 January, Trump promised to bomb 52 sites in Iran (including cultural heritage sites) should Iran retaliate against the USA; he chose the number 52 after the number of Americans taken hostage by Iran during the 1979-81 Iran hostage crisis. This threat sparked even more controversy, as Trump's threat to destroy Iranian culture would be a gross violation of international law. In Iraq, Shi'ite Islamists celebrated Soleimani and Muhandis' martyrdom and condemned the US assassination; Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi claimed that the strike violated the US' 2011 withdrawal agreement, as the US had struck foreign targets on Iraqi soil without Iraq's permission. On 5 January, a rump Iraqi Parliament of 170 Shi'ite lawmakers voted to expel US forces from the country, although the vote was not attended by the Kurdish or Sunni MPs, rendering the vote largely symbolic. Category:Persian Gulf crisis Category:Air raids